This week’s Subway Cinema News celebrates the holiday bonanza of Asian movies unleashed in New York City.

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On Tuesday, December 14 @ 7pm the Korean Cultural Service is holding a free screening of Korean and Korean-American short films at the Tribeca Cinemas. It’s a special, end-of-year event for them to celebrate their year of bringing free Korean movies to NYC and it’s going to be a bit of a party. Seating if first-come, first-served, but there’s plenty of room for everyone, so come on down!

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VENGEANCE, Johnnie To’s movie starring French icon Johnny Hallyday, opens at the IFC Center this Friday, 12/10. The movie was originally released back in 2009 and while To purists won’t be blown away, this is Johnnie To’s greatest hits album, a visually-striking series of setpieces that will pound your eyeballs with gunsmoke drifiting on the wind, shootouts choreographed to the light and darkness of the moon passing behind the clouds and AK-47’s shredding giant piles of garbage. (read a review) (watch the trailer) (tickets and showtimes)

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Film Forum is holding a special retrospective for Toru Takemitsu (Dec. 3 – 16) and they’re screening a bunch of amazing films. Right up there with Ennio Morricone and John Williams, Takemitsu has put his sonic fingerprints all some of Japan’s greatest movies and there are plenty of amazing classics in this line-up, including: Akira Kurosawa’s RAN, Masako Kobayashi’s HARAKIRI (one of the best samurai movies ever made, and right up there with SEVEN SAMURAI as a masterpiece of the genre), KWAIDAN (one of Japan’s most beautiful horror movies), and the trippy THE FACE OF ANOTHER. The following films are in the series and unavailable on DVD in the US: Kobayashi’s YOUTH OF JAPAN, Kon Ichikawa’s ALONE ON THE PACIFIC and BALLAD OF ORIN, BAD BOYS and SHE AND HE. (full info)

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Speaking of Kon Ichikawa, his anti-war masterpiece, FIRES ON THE PLAIN, is screening at Japan Society as part of their Shadows of the Rising Sun: Cinema and Empire (Dec. 10 – 12). Two of the stand-out films are Nagisa Oshima’s rarely-screening Takeshi “Beat” Kitano and David Bowie POW movie, MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE (that’ll restore your faith in the resiliency of the human soul) and Koji “United Red Army” Wakamatsu’s perverse and erotic CATERPILLAR. They’re also screening Cannes Grand Prize winner DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP. (full info)

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The Asia Society’s Japan Cinema in the 60’s series is 100% free and it’s screening its last film this Friday, Dec. 10 @ 6:45pm. The movie? FORT OF DEATH, a ninja-tastic, 60’s, full-color action film. (full info)

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The latest Bollywood movie from the family-friendly Yash Raj Entertainment banner is BAND BAAJA BAARAAT which opens this Friday, 12/10 at Big Cinemas (formerly the ImaginAsian). It’s a musical comedy set in the world of wedding planners. (see the trailer) (showtimes and tickets) (more info)

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Comments (1) Dec 08 2010